1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charging lid opening and closing device for protecting a receiving coupler on an electric vehicle which is powered by electric energy supplied from a battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years have seen progress in the development of electric vehicles as means of transportation for reducing the rate of consumption of existing fossil fuels and avoiding possible environmental pollution. Electric vehicles are powered by electric energy stored in and supplied from batteries mounted thereon. The battery on an electric vehicle needs to be charged with electric energy from an external source from time to time. For supplying electric energy to the battery, the electric vehicle has a receiving coupler that can be fitted over an energy supplying coupler of an electric energy supply station.
If, when the electric vehicle is moved to the electric energy supply station, the energy supplying coupler can automatically engage the receiving coupler and start automatically charging the battery through the receiving coupler, then the burden on attendants at the electric energy supply station can be minimized. The receiving coupler of the electric vehicle needs to be protected against dirt and dust, and requires an openable and closable lid for giving the electric vehicle a neat appearance. If the battery is to be automatically charged through the receiving coupler, then it is desirable that the openable and closable lid should automatically be opened and closed.
Many gasoline-powered vehicles have a fuel inlet lid that is manually openable and closable for supplying gasoline to the gasoline tank. Users of electric vehicles are usually accustomed to such a manually openable and closable fuel inlet lid, and hence possibly tend to manually open and close the openable and closable lid for the receiving coupler.
If an automatically openable and closable lid for the receiving coupler is manually opened and closed, then an excessive load is liable to be imposed on a mechanism for automatically opening and closing the lid. When the lid is manually opened and closed, if the lid is not fully open, a feeding coupler may not normally be fitted into the receiving coupler, and if the lid is not fully closed, then the lid may wobble as it is partially open, and possibly adversely affect the way in which the electric vehicle runs.